Shattered Sun – “Hope Within Hatred” [Album Review]

Fundamentally, what Shattered Sun do on this their debut album, is nothing new but the end result is really slick. Still, having had ten or so years to hone their sound, you’d expect them to be pretty tight by now. Melodic, shred-filled metal is the order of the day here and, like I said, generic it may be, tight as the proverbial gnats chuff it most definitely is.

In terms of influences, it’ll take you all of about two minutes before you’re rattling off a list of the usual suspects – Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth, Five Finger Death Punch – all of them rolled into a big ball of melodic guitar runs, throaty vocals, and blasts of kick drums. Songs like the title track and “Reign Over Me” shred like a bastard while “Waging War” is a glorious three minutes of circle-pit inducing, dust-raising, modern metal – the perfect soundtrack for one of those metal-fests that has a load of a similar-sounding bands vying for your attention under the baking heat of a mid-afternoon slot. Okay, so Shattered Sun lose marks for originality but, really, at the end of the day, sometimes there is nothing better than a really straightforward, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin, slab of thunderous melodic metal and, as far as that goes, Hope Within Hatred is a very adequate effort.

“281” sees the obligatory ballad rear its ugly head while the album winds down with “No Sympathy” and “Return To Serenity,” two tracks which certainly hint at influence from the masters of melodic thrash, Testament. Obviously it comes as no surprise then to see Chuck Billy’s involvement with the band and, with a melodic thrash legend like Billy steering you, armed with a solid debut album like Hope Within Hatred , Shattered Sun are looking in good shape for now.

Track Listing:

01. The Ultimatum
02. Victory or Death
03. Hope Within Hatred
04. Reign over Me
05. Burning Regrets
06. Waging War
07. Dead Set
08. 281
09. Awaken
10. No Sympathy
11. Return to Serenity

Run Time: 42:45
Release Date: April 21, 2015

Check out the song “Hope Within Hatred” here.